Problem with Glow Worm 50FF flue letting rainwater in

[DaveC14]

Hi

I live in a particularly windy area and last week my Glow Worm 50FF boiler packed up completely. The engineer came out, did some tests and then opened up the boiler itself and said the PCB was shorted out. The PCB was literally running in water, I saw it myself. The engineer explained that the rainwater was being blown into the flue and due to the poor design of the boiler (it is 10 years old) it was then running down inside the bolier and onto the PCB. We have only just moved into the house but looking back through the paperwork it appears it had a new PCB 5 years ago although I don't know it this was due to the same fault. The engineer replaced the PCB and suggested there was nothing I could do except risk it happening again or get a new boiler of better design.

Is this really true? Can I get an after-market cowl of some sort to fit over it? Can we really put men on the moon but not stop rainwater getting into my boiler?

Thanks for any advice

Dave

 

[Agile]

Correct installation includes the flue angle which should slope down away from the boiler!

What does yours do?

Correcting flue angles is labour intensive and I usually charge about £180 and customers dont want to pay that and so it does not get done!

Ask G-W and I doubt they will say anything is wrong with the boiler design!

If there was, then take them to court to claim the cost of the repair and new PCB. I doubt that you would win!

So whats your flue angle?

Tony

 

[DaveC14]

Thanks for the reply, I don't know the angle, how would I measure it?

 

[Agile]

Digital angle meter?

Spirit level and ruler and maths?

Protractor and spirit level?

It should slope at about three degrees!

Tony